December 12, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
From Grantmaker to Leader: Emerging Strategies for 21st Century Foundations
by Frank L. Ellsworth and Joe Lumarda
Foundations have the potential to take the lead in developing innovative solutions to social problems facing our country today, write Frank L. Ellsworth and Joe Lumarda. Mr. Ellsworth is a vice president at Capital Research and Management Company, in Los Angeles, who oversees mutual funds offered exclusively to nonprofit organizations; Mr. Lumarda is executive vice president of external affairs at the California Community Foundation, also in Los Angeles. These essays by staff members at foundations and organizations that advise donors offer tips on how grant makers can develop leadership and management strategies to play a more active role in dealing with problems such as urban poverty and shortages in low-cost housing.
The collection begins with an overview of the growing field of family foundations and provides examples of their methods of leadership, including the ways they organize their boards. Other chapters stress the need for boards to be more diverse in their make-up, and the value of foundations’ distributing information about social trends, community change, and organizational behavior to nonprofit groups.
In an essay entitled “Impact of the New Economy on Foundations,” Bill Dietel, former president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Tory Dietel Hopps and Jonathan Hopps, consultants, argue that foundations can bring about a “renaissance” in philanthropy if they adapt to the “new” economy, one in which new donors are interested in seeing quick results, holding nonprofit organizations accountable, and becoming actively involved in the leadership of the charities receiving their donations.
In his essay, Jack Shakely, president of the California Community Foundation, suggests that the future of philanthropy lies with the formation of what he calls “meta-foundations,” which combine the assets and size of traditional foundations with the ideology of venture philanthropists. He writes that some community foundations are already following the model of the meta-foundation by using their staff members and grants to invest in long-lasting relationships with nonprofit organizations, providing them with more than simply money. For example, the chapter includes a case study of a foundation that shared its expertise, marketing staff, and legal counsel to help a floundering social-service group become viable again.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1 Wiley Drive, Somerset, N.J. 08875; (800) 225-5945; fax (800) 597-3299; http://www.wiley.com; 268 pages; $65.
